Reading in the time of COVID - Ghosted

The book Ghosted can definitely be added to your summer reading list. 

Imagine you are walking and you run into this person on the road.  I am talking run in figuratively.  You are out taking a walk and meet a stranger on the road.  You walk into town to the nearest pub or bar and you find the two of you really hit it off.

You spend every minute with this person for a week, seven glorious days. Then because of a previous booked holiday you separate with the promise that you will see each other in a week. He or she tells you they will text you when they get back but sadly on the designated day you hear nothing.  

You are heart sick but you wait hoping that contact will be made the next day and then the next.  But nothing. Radio silence. You thought this person was the one who you would share your life with and you know with every fiber of your being that the other person felt the same.

You can't accept the fact that they were just not that into you or that you were convenient.  You know that something happened to the person or they would have made contact.

Sarah is sure Eddie was as into her as she was to him.  They shared so much of their life stories and even though they had only spent 7 days together they new this was real.  Eddie had plans to go on holiday to Spain but promised Sarah he would speak with her when he got back.  On the promised day Sarah heard nothing and continued to hear nothing.  Eddie had disappeared. Sarah was Ghosted. However in her heart she knew something happened or Eddie hadn't been completely honest with her.  Either way she was going to find out. Read the book to find out the story.

Binge Watching in the Time of COVID - After Life

I watch The Graham Norton Show, the BBC equivalent of Jimmy Fallon or Jimmy Kimmel.  He is very funny and he usually puts together a couch with celebrities that work well together.   

Prior to COVID, Ricky Gervais was on the Graham Norton show talking about this series he wrote and directed as well as acted in.  The series After Life, is about a man who has lost his soul mate, the love of his life his wife.

It is very rare to have a series about a man so broken hearted that he no longer wants to live.  Not because men don't have these feelings its just that women are usually portrayed in this type of role since women are supposedly more open about their emotions.  

Tony has just lost his wife to cancer. Do you remember the line in Jerry Maguire where he says "you complete me" to Dorothy. That is how Tony feels about his wife.  She literally knew him better than anyone in the world and he misses her desperately.  When asked how he is feeling he says "A good day is when I don't want to shoot random strangers in the face."  

The cast of characters that surround him at his job as a journalist are quirky but believable.  They really play well against each other. The series is both humorous and sad.

Gervais wrote, directed and starred in After Life  does an amazing job with the character Tony. I sat in front of my television with a box of tissues. It happened to be raining so I binge watched the two seasons on Netflix.  Sadly, in this time of COVID, there are far too many deaths and many people are facing the loss of loved ones. Hopefully they have a cast of characters around them to help them through.  I know I do.

Having a Laugh in the time of COVID

I needed a laugh so I went onto you tube and I watched my favorite Talking dog video. I don't know if it is the dogs expression or the voice.  Whatever it is, if you haven't watched it click on the link.

IF you like singing donkeys and who doesn't, check out this link. It is Harriet the singing donkey straight from Ireland.

Enjoy

The Silent Patient

This was my book clubs read for May.  Not daunted by COVID restrictions we had a virtual Zoom meeting.  It is not the same as meeting in person but at least we got the opportunity to see each other and catch up on each others lives.


The book centers around the murder of a fashion photographer.  The wife is the prime suspect but nothing is for certain since the potential murderer refuses to talk and is confined to an institution. 

The story develops through several  forms of communication, diary entries, art work and narrative.  What makes this book different than other psycho thrillers is the way the author weaves the tale of the characters and your just not sure how it will end until it does.

I really enjoyed the book

Escaping to the Mountains in the Time of COVID

The COVID restrictions had been eased a bit.  Governor Hogan and Northam moved to stage one of recovery.  I hadn't seen my daughter since Christmas so I decided to head to Southwest Virginia.  We didn't want to be inside because the sun actually decided to shine for a while. Since we were still not ready for prime time, we took a drive up to Mill Mountain Park. 

We found a walking trail that passed though a wildflower garden. The greenery was beautiful but there weren't very many flowers yet due to the cold May that we are experiencing.  I still found some pretty flowers and I thought I would share a few with you.

One of the neat things we found among the greenery was this time capsule that was created in 1976.  Based on the date noted of 2076, I am assuming there are plans to retrieve the time capsule then.  I love time capsules.  As intended they give you a great snapshot of the past.

The day turned out to be a welcomed reprieve to the last several months of being confined to my house.

A Picnic in the time of COVID

It was a Saturday afternoon, the Governor announced that the state was moving into Stage one of a gradual return to everyday life.  What it meant was things were starting to open to the public.  Not confident about being to close to people, we decided  to go to a park and have a picnic and enjoy the great outdoors.

Wouldn't you know it, it rained.  Did that deter us.  Heck no.  We brought the picnic indoors.   My friend Pam is the Picnic queen.  Her picnics are a foodie dream.  So I channeled her creativity and I looked in my fridge and pantry and here is what I came up with.

The main course was a wrap made with a sun dried tomato basil tortilla. For all of you watching your carbs and calories, the tortilla is only 60 calories, 6 g net carbs, 6 g fiber and surprisingly very tasty.  I spread some spicy guacamole on the tortilla, then added a marinated, chicken tender and several fresh red pepper strips.

I had a small side side salad and then created a fruit parfait with blueberries and strawberries layered in vanilla greek yogurt.   Brownies, store bought rounded out the meal. I wasn't up to baking brownies.

It turned out to be a lovely picnic. 

Binge Watching in the time of COVID - Modern Love

Modern Love on Amazon is not what I expected.  I was expecting a full length move with different stories intertwined.  This is not what this is at all.  Rather it is a series of Vignettes.  Tina Fey, Ann Hathaway, and Dev Patel each star in an "episode" which is what attracted me to this series of 8 episodes.  They are unique love stories with different relationships that unfold in a very captivating way. 

I love the development of each story with no two stories having the same theme.  I high recommend choosing Modern Love as a binge watching possibility.

Amazon Prime video in the time of COVID The future

I am an Amazon Prime member and with that membership I get to  binge watch just like I do on Netflix.  I must say Amazon has done a good job with original content. Here are four of my favorites in no particular order.


          Upload
          Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan
          The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
        
I started watching Upload as soon as it was released.  It takes place in 2033 only thirteen years from now.  That's not really that far in the future.  You see people wearing 95 masks and there isn't even a COVID Pandemic.  Maybe no on told them that it was over.

Things look pretty much the same except that there is little more advanced technology, especially when dealing with the after life.  Technology now exists that captures the knowledge stored in your brain and what makes you, you. They Upload everything on servers and you are transported to a new existence.  The premise being that science will catch up with this technology and you will be returned to your body or if that is not what you want, your loved ones can join you in the afterlife and you can live for an eternity together.

But all is not what it appears to be when this man is killed when his self driving ?car malfunctions or dies it malfunction.  Was it tampered with.  Will his thought processes be tampered with to get information on projects he was working on?

Watch it and see.  I has me hooked.

The Heirloom Garden

The Heirloom Garden is a perfect summer read.  Two families affected by war.  Not the same war two different wars.

Iris has suffered great personal losses, one being the death of her husband shortly before World War II was over. Abby technically hasn't lost her husband he came back from the war in the Mid East, but he is not the same man who left.  

After Iris' devastating losses she  has found great solace from her fenced in heirloom garden.  The plants she grows are either from plants her Grandmother and Mother cultivated or the ones she has designed.  Her plants are her children and her garden is her world. She rarely if ever leaves the walls of that garden.

That is until Abby and her family rent the house next door, owned by Iris. Iris and Abby are very much alike even though it does not at first seem obvious. 

Like many plants that creep underneath fences and make their way into the neighbors yard, Abby and her family slowly grow until they too are part of Iris' world and her garden.

Losing the ones you love is so very painful.  Yes they will be remembered and yes you will carry their memory with you everyday but the fact still remains they are gone. Help comes from the living. I know being surrounded by my friends and family helped me gain normalcy. 

Friendships heal wounds sometimes better than anything else.  Sharing activities like gardening heals wounds as well.  Both families help each other get over pain.

Give the book a Try

Baking in the time of COVID 3 - Melted Butter Pecan Ice Cream Cake

It seems the  COVID virus has awakened my sweet tooth because I have suddenly started to bake a lot. Maybe it is just the stress.  Normally when I am stressed I bake bread to release the stress.  There is nothing like kneading dough but as you all know yeast is very hard to find making yeast bread hard to make. 

In a recent post, I shared a recipe for beer bread.  Beer bread uses the yeast found in beer to assist with the rising process and self rising flour so no additional yeast is needed.  Please see my post if you want to make the bread.

I am a kitchen gadget and cookbook fan.  I have become addicted to In the Kitchen with David that airs on QVC on Sundays. It is entertaining and I have picked up a number of gadgets that I I love.  I will share them with you at a later time.


Around the holiday last year I picked up the cookbook Comfort Food Shortcuts.  since I am a really bad baker and don't like recipes with lots of ingredients,  the Melted Ice Cream cake really appealed to me. The name of the cake is really Melted Strawberry Ice Cream Cake, but  I am not a fan of strawberry ice cream so I chose to use Butter Pecan and a yellow cake instead. 

It was yummy and so I thought I would share the recipe with you. Basically as long as you use the same amount of each ingredient, you can swap the cake mix and or/ the ice cream or both and make your own creation.  I was thinking of going seasonal and maybe try peach ice cream with a yellow cake. 

Unfortunately, QVC no longer has this cookbook available but if you want it here is the link on Amazon.

Cake                                                           Glaze

1 box strawberry cake mix                             1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
2 cups melted strawberry ice cream                4 teaspoons milk
3 large eggs                                                  Fresh strawberries to garnish

Preheat the oven to 350

Generously coat a Bundt pan with vegetable spray. 

Mix all the ingredients with an electric mixer at medium speed until batter is well blended.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool on wire rack.

Invert cake onto a plate.

Mix all the ingredients for the glaze together in a small bowl.

When the cake is completely cool, pour the glaze on the cake.  You can serve it with a scoop of the remaining ice cream or just eat it alone.

Hope you enjoy it.

What Alice Forgot

How would you feel if you woke up one day and found you did not remember the last 10 years of your life.   The idea of waking up to a completely different life, one you barely recognize, makes for a compelling read.   The way Alice is forced to reevaluate her choices and rediscover who she is adds a fascinating psychological layer.

She thinks she is 29, madly in love with her husband and expecting her first child. Reality check.  When she gets discharged from the hospital, she realizes this is no longer true and she is given the opportunity to inspect her life and her choices from a new perspective.

Everyone needs a wakeup call to help them re-balance their life. See what Alice did.

I y

If you enjoy Lianne Moriarty's book What Alice Forgot here are two of her other books that I would recommend: Nine Strangers and Pretty Little Lies which has been developed into a series on HBO. 

Staycations in the time of COVID

Everybody needs a holiday especially in the time of COVID.  Unfortunately, it just doesn't seem possible without risking your health. To try and trick myself into thinking I am on vacation, I try to shuffle around my usually scheduled day with things I don't do everyday.

The weekends are an example of changing my routine.  Saturday or Sunday mornings, I have started making more elaborate breakfasts.  So far I have made Banana Pancakes, blueberry waffles and some incredible omelettes.  Actually, I can't take credit for the omelettes, that is my husband's area of expertise.  My two favorites of his are Pastrami and Swiss Omelette and the Chili Cheese omelette.  I can guarantee you will not be hungry for awhile after eating either of those dishes.  Of course I make bacon, because isn't everything better with bacon?

I also set the table,  No paper.  Pour orange juice and just relax and chat and eat.  

I always have my kindle loaded with books and a stack by my bed.  I have just decided to start my summer reading now.  Romance novels and thrillers are top on my list.  If it is sunny and warm I put my feet up on the chaise on the deck.  If it is cold I sit by my fireplace.  In the last two weeks it was actually cold enough to light the fire.  Crazy I know.

It's also margarita Saturdays at my house.  The ninja is out from under the cabinet and I am becoming quite the expert at making fruity adult beverages.  This past Saturday I made a mixed berry margarita made with strawberries, blackberries and blueberries and Tequila. It definitely put me in a more jovial mood.  They go well with nachos. Heck they go well with everything and think of all the vitamins and antioxidants they contain.  

Hey I am not delusional.  Nothing beats a real vacation but Here are some suggestions you might want to try. Desperate times means desperate measures.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

This was one of my book club's pick. It was on the best seller list in the top 5 for thirty weeks. I can understand why.  

Eleanor is socially awkward.  People at work look at her as if she is crazy.  She dresses conservatively and tries to stay under the radar.  Her life is very orderly; get up, go to work, go home, eat dinner and drink vodka.

But two things change her life.  The first is when she meets the unkempt IT guy from her company and the second when both of them are on the street when a man collapses and they both come to his assistance. From that day on her life as she knew it was over.  

I don't want to say more.  I want you to enjoy her metamorphosis. It's a good read. Give it a try.

Baseball - A league of their own Mary Pratt

If you have never seen A League of Their Own, now is the time to watch it.  In this time of the COVID virus,  it may be the only baseball you get to this season. Just in case you have not watched it yet, it is about the all American Girl's Professional Baseball League. Watching Rosie O'Donnell, Madonna and Geena Davis star in this movie is worth the price of admission. OMG I actually almost forgot to mention Tom Hanks whose line "There's no crying in baseball"  has become a classic.

Sadly, Mary Pratt one of the original players, a pitcher who started with the Rockford Peaches recently passed away.  She was 101. We thank her for sharing her athletic talent with us and being an inspiration to young female athletes. May she rest in peace.

Bread in the time of COVID Let's use beer

In case you hadn't noticed, yeast is extremely hard to find in the grocery stores these days. That is why I decided to make beer bread.  The recipe is very simple. There are three ingredients with the beer providing the yeast to allow the bread to rise.  There is no kneading and the bread is ready in 45 minutes. 

If your house is like mine, there is always beer in the fridge.  I mean how can you have Poker night without beer, even if it is a virtual game?

The taste of the bread is influenced by the type of beer you use.  I used a Sam Adams lager which is a full bodied beer.  There was a little bit of an after taste.  If you are a beer lover this should be no problem .  I am not a big beer lover so I plan to make this bread again with a milder beer.

You can also add other ingredients which is what I did.  I add fresh rosemary.  I think it added a little something something. I think next time  I might add dried herbs and some cheddar.  

To my foodie friends, Go Wild!! Let me know what you come up with. Here is the recipe.

3 cups self rising flour

1- 12 ounce beer at room temperature

1/4 cup of sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9 x 5 loaf pan

2.  In a large bowl combine all the ingredients.  Pour mix into the loaf pan

3.  Bake for 45 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean

Hope you enjoyed yesterday's post about a brewery in New York  delivering by Doggie Delivery.

Beer Delivery in the time of Covid

There is a reason that dogs are known as man's best friend and in Huntington, New York a local brewery is capitalizing on the relationship.  Dogs are being used to deliver beer and getting a wonderful reception.  Their names Buddy and Barley and people are loving them.  After all, even without a beer delivery these dogs are adorable.  Having the beer just makes them that much more lovable. 

Our dog was incredibly smart but we never thought to train him to bring us a beer.  Duh!  Unfortunately he passed away and we have not had the heart to replace him.  When we do, I am sure my husband will start working with him immediately.  Maybe he can even teach him to open the fridge, get a beer out and deliver it to his recliner.  

Amazon can keep their drones.  I would rather have a doggie delivery anyday.  Click on the link "local brewery to see the dogs in action.

***Update***** My Lettuce in the time of COVID

In a previous post on May 1st, I talked about growing lettuce from scraps.
I really didn't believe that it was possible to grow lettuce from the bottom of a head of lettuce. BUT I am pleases and excited to say that my lettuce is growing and I have included the picture to prove it. 

We eat a lot of salads and so far I have three more "scraps" of lettuce growing. They are growing as well.  I have tried growing lettuce from seed and was not successful so I am thrilled that this is working out.  Give it a try!!

Barefoot Season

If you need a nice romance novel, read Barefoot Season. It has a good story line about a female Vet returning home from Afghanistan to heal from a gunshot wound.  Her unit was ambushed and she is the sole survivor.  

Her Father gave her an Inn that was run by her Mom while she was away.  I don't want to give any more than that away but she is helped by people on the island that she has known and that are new acquaintances.   

What the World Needs Now is Love in the time of COVID

This is the link to What the World needs Now Is Love sung by some pretty great people. I is similar to We Are the World  released in 1985.  It is not a new video either but I think it is very relevant to this time during the COVID Pandemic where love and acts of kindness are conveyed from 6 feet away. 

This pandemic has people so stressed out that some are forgetting how to act toward each other.  Before COVID I used to love waking up early to do my food shopping.  It was quiet and don't tell the Giant but I use to power walk the store before I actually shopped.  Sometimes I saw some friends there doing the same thing, shopping before the crowd.  It was relaxing.  It was peaceful.

Now I hate going to the grocery store even though it is the only outing I have unless I go into work.  The stores have arrows on the floor directing you which way to go.  The first time they added these arrows I went down the aisle the wrong way.  I got chewed out by a store associate and this older couple. I apologized but they kept grumbling about following the arrows. I promise to do better.

But there are plenty of nice people.  I am 5 feet tall and needed something that was way back on an almost empty shelf.  This lovely 6 foot tall  man stopped and help me reaching up and getting what I needed.  He just did it. When I asked this other person where he found the English muffins in his cart since I was unable to find that brand, he said that he had taken the last two but he gladly offered to give me one of his packs.  I thanked him and said I really didn't need them but how great that he offered.

I am very fortunate to work with a great team with great hearts.  We work for a health organization in End User Mobility.  We configure the phones, tablets, workstations on wheels for our hospitals and ambulatory sites. I am not exactly on the front line but I like to think that our team is helping those treating patients by providing the tools they need to do their job. It is a lot of pressure and things can literally change in minutes.  It is stressful but we all try to huddle in the morning and laugh together.

The video and the song have reminded me that I and every body else needs to show some kindness towards one another.  If a security guard some where asks you to wear your mask Just DO IT!  Think of it as you helping others from getting sick and not an inconvenience.  You can grit your teeth and bare it, not give the person doing their job a hard time and certainly don't shot them. It's crazy it happened, a security guard was shot for asking someone to wear a mask in the store. 

Listen to the music.  Show some love and kindness.  Cherish your friends and family.

Exercise part 2 in the time of COVID - KINRGY

KINRGY is Moving our body, breathing and activating our imagination  This according to Julianne Hough who has created the workout.  For those of you who are not familiar with Julianne, she started out on Dancing With the Stars. She then moved onto acting where she starred as Sandy in the live presentation of Grease and was the lead female in Footloose among other performancee.  More recently, she was a judge on Americas got Talent.

This work out is a down and dirty, high intensity work out. After all Julianne didn't get her rock solid bod by doing Carole Bertuzzi Luciani's workout.



Skip the first 17 minutes of talk by her and Gwenyth Paltrow and go straight to the workout Working Out with Julianne Huff. Prepare to sweat!

Educated

Educated  was my book club selection for March/April.  I had been reading a lot of fiction so I was glad to be reading a non fiction book.  

The book evoked so many emotions in me like anger, sadness and happiness as I read it. The book is about the life of a young girl who lives in a remote area of Idaho.  She was born to a family of survivalists.  They lived off the grid and their income was from basically junking and things her Mother makes with herbs and such in her kitchen.

No one held the family accountable for the children's education.  Her brother was incredibly violent and while he abused her the other family members turned a blind eye. 

But even though she had been kept from attending school she learned to read  and studied everything she could.  The book is her journey of someone who started with nothing, no money, abuse, and no education to a woman with a PHd from Cambridge.  It was an amazing  and inspiring journey to read about.

If you haven't read it yet, consider reading it during this COVID pandemic.

Easy Baking in the time of COVID - Red Velvet Cookies

I have a colleague who is an amazing baker. People fight over her cookies and lemon meringue pie. She is kind enough to reserve a tin of her assorted mix for myself and my team. That takes the pressure off of me to bring in sweet treats to the office.

There is nothing that motivates the guys on my team more than food.  They wait all year for these cookies.  It really doesn't take too much to make an IT team happy, just a little love and a whole lot of cookies.  The sugar in the cookies keep us going when we are working long shifts.

I can't compete with my colleague nor do I even want to try, however, the holiday season is cookie season and I have a few recipes that are somewhat simple and taste good. I discovered this recipe when I was baking for the holidays this past December.  They were a hit with my friends and family and so I am sharing this three ingredient cookie (4 if you add chips) recipe with you.

                                         Red Velvet Cookies

One box of Red Devil Cake Mix

Two Whole Eggs

1/2 c vegetable oil

1/2 white Chocolate chips 

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl combine all ingredients together.  Then drop the batter by spoonful onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. 

To make it easier to drop the dough onto the pan, I spray my food with a little cooking spray and they drop right off.

You can substitute a stick of softened butter for the vegetable oil.  If you don't want as sweet a cookie omit the chips. You can also add 1/4 tsp vanilla to intensify the flavor.

Don't wait for the holidays.  Make them now. I did.

*-

Becoming - Michelle Obama

First Ladies are important in the United States.  They are married to the President and the type of woman he chose to marry speaks volumes about the man himself.  It is a difficult, thankless job and we have been fortunate to have had such strong woman as first ladies. 

Most of the first ladies bring their own passions and causes to the White House.  Barbara and Laura Bush chose education as their focus. In fact, Barbara Bush created the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.  I was fortunate to attend one of her fund raisers where she and George were present.  Six authors were chosen to talk about their most recent book.  There was a meet and greet with these authors where I got to talk with them.  I have to tell you I was in heaven.

George Bush was the opening speaker.  Barbara was there by his side and when he started to ramble a bit (he was older at this event) she put her hand on his arm and he immediately refocused and introduced the program.  They seemed so in sync with each other.

Hilary Clinton was a strong force who had many woman focused causes as well as many political causes.  The fact that she is a lawyer herself and has a strong knowledge of governmental politics and constitutional law is impressive. It was great having such an intelligent woman occupying that position for eight years.

Michelle Obama also has an impressive resume.  She too is a lawyer and she too has an impressive understanding of American politics. Her initiative Let's Move brought attention to childhood obesity. Her book, Becoming, is an insightful, candid look at her strong family ties, her professional life, her marriage and her years in the White House. Michelle Obama's strength is her ability to communicate with people.  Her willingness to go into communities where people live and listen to people and connect especially with young people is inspirational.

Netfix is now streaming an original documentary entitled Becoming. It is the abbreviated version of the book.   I suggest watching it but if you have not read the book please consider reading it.  It is a really good book and a must read.

Virtual Meetings in the time of COVID

This is a sample of a post I wrote about video chats.  It is more of a person observation rather than a technical observation.

During this COVID pandemic, video conferencing has become an integral part of office and daily life . Every day my team and I have a Teams meeting so that everyone is kept up to date on projects that are being worked on by team members. The meeting is not just for business.  We also chat about things going on in our personal life just like we did when we were in an office setting.   It certainly helps to break up the monotony of the home office scene. Teams and Zoom have become our best friends.  Sharing our screens and having a discussion is so much better than talking on the phone or emailing back and forth. We have a more collaborative environment. 

I decided to try it out in my personal life as well. It was in the beginning months of the pandemic and nobody really had a handle on social distancing.   It was my turn to host book club.   I felt that we could not be socially respectful if we met. I initially cancelled the meeting.  Then I thought to myself why don't I try to host a virtual meeting.  

It was so good to see everyone after being isolated in my  house for weeks. Adjustments to our routine needed to be made. Our usual book club agenda is as follows; greet everyone, happy hour consisting of wine and finger foods, dinner, book discussion with dessert.

Obviously our agenda changed and we just enjoyed a few minutes of chat and catch up time while sipping on a glass of wine.  We then went directly to the book discussion.  It went very well. 

Since book club went so well, I decided to host my wine club gathering with zoom.  Using zoom and doing a video call had an added benefit. Two members of the wine club were currently living on the other side of the country. Hosting a virtual wine club made it possible to include everyone.  It was great having the whole gang talking and drinking together..  We all picked our drink of choice, most picking wine but some going for a cocktail.  Why not? After all COVID changed everything so if someone chose not to drink wine it was ok.  An added benefit, no designated driver was needed since we were already at home.

The bottom line is whether you use  Zoom, Teams  Web Ex, Slack etc. virtual meetings have become a necessary way of life. Just remember,  facial expressions and body language do not always  translate well on video so you need to be mindful of what you are doing all the time. One additional reminder, wear pants or make sure your camera is focused on you waist up showing  you in proper attire. After all nobody wants to be caught with their pants down.

I found this video on you tube.  It seems a lot of looking good is all about the lighting  and camera angle so I want to share this link with you, Looking Good for on line meetings.  I learned a lot and I am changing how I have my home office set up and adjusting my lighting. 

For those who use video conferencing enjoy.  For those of you who never have, give it a try.  Let me know how it goes and where you are using it.

Breakfast in the time of COVID Blueberry waffles

My friend gave me a waffle maker that is incredibly under used. It was this past Sunday morning.  I decided to break away from my daily breakfast of a slice of light wheat toast (45 calories) and a scrambled egg.  Instead I thought I would make Blueberry Waffles.  I figured if I added blueberries then eating a waffle was not quite as bad.  Yes it has a lot of carbs but it also has fruit.  That is how I rationalized eating them in my head. 

I went online to look at the many waffle recipes.  I have to admit there were some great recipes. The problem  was that there were a lot of ingredients in all of them and I wasn't up for the challenge. 

Then I looked in my pantry and realized  I had a box of Krusteaz Belgian Waffle Mix unopened.  When I bought the box I had every intention of trying the mix with the waffle maker but it just sat there until this past weekend.

When I read the instructions, there were 4 ingredients; the mix, water, eggs and oil.  That sealed the deal.  I made the mix added my blueberries and I had waffles for breakfast.  Maybe next time I will actually make them from scratch.  The recipe on this website looked really good.

The waffles turned out pretty good.  The problem with making waffles is the cleanup.  Now I remember why a did not make waffles on a regular basis.  Aside from the calorie count the cleanup is arduous especially if you add fruit. 

Oh and about the extra calories, I rode my exercise bicycle for 30 minutes and walked extra steps.  My FIt Bit keeps me honest.  After all, we are in the middle of the COVID pandemic and you have to treat yourself to a little something right?  Well that's my story and I am sticking to it.

Hope you treat yourself to something delicious.  Next week I am thinking banana pancakes. 

   

Celebrities during COVID - Kyra and Kevin

I love Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon.  They are both great actors.  I was very sorry when The Closer went off the air.  I miss Brenda Lee Johnson especially when she wold go in for the kill.

I guess everyone finds ways to amuse themselves and this is the duo of them singing together. Using the salt container is very innovative and has a pretty decent sound/  

My husband and I thought of doing this same exact song but Kyra and Kevin beat us to it.  I admit they are a little better than us. Ok they are a lot better than us.

Enjoy.

Netflix in the Time of COVID Part 1 Romance

Despite what you might think, I think it takes tremendous talent to write a good romance novel.  I doubt very few of you guys read them but maybe you should.  It wouldn't hurt your relationships if you were to tap into your feminine side.  Your gender doesn't matter, everyone has a feminine and masculine side.

I think that Romance novels are highly under rated.  A good Romance novel makes the nasty world outside of your window go away.  There are two sure things about a Romance novel 1. love is involved and 2. they have happy endings.  If those two elements are not in the book, it is not a true romance novel. A really good romance novel depends on how well the author develops the plot and the characters.  Just like thrillers and literary fiction not all romance novels are alike. 

Robyn Carr is a romance author that has written many books. I like her novels.  She has good characters, some good story line and  beautiful if not rugged settings.  One of her collections is known as the Virgin River series. So when I was looking to pass some time away sheltering in place as so many of us are these days, I checked out Netflix.

Low and behold netflix has a series entitled Virgin River based on the Virgin River books.  Ten glorious episodes and I watched all 10.  I didn't watch them all at once.  Of course not.  I watched 5 of them one night and made myself wait until the next evening to finish the rest. I had to have something to look forward to.

 I really liked how they made the adaptation and would suggest you read the novels and then watch the series on netflix.  

Ladies, Hallmark has some definite competition.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Gardening in the time of COVID

Lettuce day 1

I spend my lunch break surfing the web for interesting articles to read.  Gardening was never a big thing for me because I have a brown thumb meaning most of my plants dies.  You should have seen how many basil plants I killed last year.  I was heart sick because I love cooking with fresh basil and making fresh pesto.  My web surfing paid off.

For years, really all my adult life, when I cut up a head of lettuce I would throw away the ends.  Little did I know that there are 20 Vegetables you can grow from scraps.  It just so happens that lettuce is one of these vegetables. My husband and I eat a lot of salads.  During this COVID Pandemic we are trying to eat as healthy as possible. Last night we had a wonderful salad with warm salmon and feta.

Growing lettuce was top of my list to try and grow.  I didn't think it was possible to grow it from scraps.  Actually, I thought is was possible to do it but I didn't believe I could do it. 

I have very little success gardening  again the brown thumbs issue. Then I thought what the heck.  I am going to try it. Hazzah my lettuce stump sprouted little shoots.  It's a little hard to see in the photo below, but take my word they are there.  I am optimistically cautious that it will grow and I will take you along on my journey. So check back to see how my little plant is doing.  I am about to plant it in dirt.  

Check out the link above to see the how too's. Supposedly sweet potatoes and carrots can be grown this way as well.  I am going to give it a try.

Lettuce day 5